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With all the fanfare surrounding the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S3, it’s easy to forget that the Koreans have another secret weapon in their Android sleeve, the Galaxy Note 10.1.

The bigger cousin of the highly popular phablet has received its fair share of close-up shots during its last outing, back in February at MWC, but the tablet has been sent back to the drawing board ever since.

A member of XDA-developers, floiancu, had the opportunity to try out the new and improved Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Check out his notes, pun intended, on what’s changed below!

Starting with the specs, the revised Galaxy Note 10.1 now comes with a 1.4GHz quad-core processor. It is very likely that this is the same Exynos Quad 4 processor that is powering the Samsung Galaxy S3. While we’d hoped for a retina-burning resolution, it seems the Galaxy Note 10.1 will have to be content with a 1280 x 800 resolution and roughly 150ppi. The tablet ships with 1GB of RAM, a 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, a microSD card slot and Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

As far as aesthetics go, the Galaxy Note 10.1 has undergone some beauty transformation. The “hyperglazed” coating of the Galaxy S3 can now be found on the Galaxy Note 10.1 as well – allowing you to match your Pebble Blue phone with a Pebble Blue tablet. Nice. It’s still unclear whether we’ll see a Marble White variant of the Galaxy Note 10.1. And of note, the S Pen now has a home inside the tablet, bringing much relief to clumsy people of the world. The much bigger S Pen fits inside a vertical hole in the lower left part of the tablet, when it’s facing up.

Floiancu also has posted a video of the Galaxy Note 10.1 running PhotoshopTouch, which you can check below.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 will come in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models. For now, there’s still no solid word yet on its price and availability, but we’re pretty sure we’ll hear more of it in the next couple of days. It’s possible that it will be announced this month. So, do you think the specs and exterior change of the Galaxy Note 10.1 have been worth the wait? Are you disappointed with the tablet’s resolution? Sound off in the comments below.

Sade has an addiction, and it is incurable. Being as furiously addicted as he is mobile technology, it's only natural that he would want to work with the best Android site in the world. He scours the internet at all hours of the day and night to bring you the freshest, most interesting news on the rapidly expanding world of Android!